Digitalisation and automation are about people as much as technology, emphasises Divya Vijay Pratheek. Remove the most repetitive tasks and you remove error and encourage innovative thinking.
The life sciences industry is expanding rapidly, with new innovations and breakthroughs being made every day. As the industry evolves and in the wake of Covid-19, there has been a remarkable growth in genomic surveillance, breakthroughs in gene editing and increased testing in healthcare, to name just a few examples.
At the same time, we are seeing the evolution of Lab 4.0 and lab spaces are becoming increasingly digitised and automated, in order to scale testing, speed up workflows and improve research capabilities.
The drive to continue to advance discoveries in life sciences and the changing nature of the laboratory also draws attention to the experience of lab scientists.
The heart of a lab is ultimately the scientists who work there
Life science organisations can no longer afford for their labs to be a space where highly skilled and intelligent scientists are confined to their benches to perform easily automatable tasks – as this model doesn’t maximise available technology and restricts the ability to scale.
In fact, highly qualified lab staff should be at the forefront of discovery and have time to focus their efforts on driving innovation. Automation, as part of Lab 4.0, is key to giving them back this valuable time while also improving the quality and quantity of samples processed.
Open, integrated automation
Previous approaches to automation over the last decade have been limited to specialised benchtop instruments, which only partially addressed repetitive tasks. Manual steps and sample transfers between instruments still consume scientists’ valuable time, so to connected lab empower the scientists in today’s labs a new approach to automation is vital: open, integrated automation.
This model digitally and robotically connects multiple devices within a workflow and helps to relieve lab staff of conducting time-consuming manual steps in between processes, transferring samples between instruments, and the associated dead time spent waiting on these instruments to finish processing. Instead, scientists can dedicate time towards data analysis and experimental design.
Relieving the stress
Scientific discovery also requires large data sets, meaning labs are often required to process high numbers of samples to gather enough data to prove or disprove a hypothesis.
In a manual situation, processing these large sets of samples would require long hours for employees, especially if working to an external deadline. However, in a lab with an open, integrated automation system, this process can be more productive without taking a toll on the workforce. While scientists are able to clock off as needed, automated labs can get to work during even the most unsociable hours. By automating entire workflows this way, systems have the ability to operate 24/7 – during evenings and weekends – eliminating the need for technicians to work overtime to complete tasks. Technology can be used to dramatically reduce manual touchpoints and maximise productivity. For a genomics lab using Automata to automate the quality control process, this approach reduced the time needed for manual setup for 200 samples from six hours 10 minutes to just 15 minutes, for example.
Unlocking precision with ease
It is estimated that 70-80% of all healthcare decisions affecting diagnosis or treatment involve a pathology investigation. Yet, in a recent Agilent survey, ‘unreliable results’ were cited as the top factor impacting productivity in labs.
No two people will perform an action in exactly the same way, but when it comes to scientific testing and development, repeatability and standardisation are critical to maintaining a controlled environment. Even minor variations could lead to further errors down the line and render the experiment unreliable.
Automated robotic solutions can continuously perform the same task without variation. Automata’s solutions have helped a number of labs reduce their manual set-up time, and in one scenario reduced touchpoints from 1,388 to just seven.
With Lab 4.0 comes a more flexible, adaptable and end-to-end approach which will improve the quality and quantity of data generated for research
Having an automated system in place means that not only does it reduce repetitive tasks and reclaim this time to unlock room for scientists to think and analyse workflows, but it can also generate a high volume of accurate results that improve overall data quality and repeatability, while also saving scientists from the time burden of redoing menial steps within the workflow.
The heart of a lab is ultimately the scientists who work there. The life science industry is advancing rapidly, and Lab 4.0 is ushering in more technology than ever into lab spaces. With open, integrated automation connecting entire workflows, these scientists will be freed up to focus on the more complex work that drives innovation and discovery.
Automation is not a new concept, but with Lab 4.0 comes a more flexible, adaptable and end-to-end approach which will improve the quality and quantity of data generated for research, enabling scientists to produce more robust conclusions, and be empowered to achieve more than ever.
Divya Vijay Pratheek is Director of Product Growth, Genomics at Automata
